A Framework for Comparing Spatial Data Infrastructures An Australian-Swiss Case Study

One of the important aspects of developing Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is to facilitate data sharing and data access. In order to achieve optimum access and use of spatial data within an SDI there is a need of knowledge about the management of data, metadata, and web services and their related processes. There are many SDI initiatives under development in many jurisdictions, and hence there are different ways to understand and assess the level of their success. One important way to achieve this goal is to compare SDIs. This paper describes the development of a framework for comparison of SDI initiatives on the basis of their web services, data and metadata management. The research is of particular relevance since it develops a management model which facilitates the operational aspects and the development process of National SDI initiatives. The paper adopted a case study methodology and the study has been conducted between Australia and Switzerland. The National SDIs of these two countries are compared and assessed. Introduction: General SDI Situation Many countries are developing SDIs to better manage and utilise their spatial data by taking a perspective that starts at a local level and proceeds through state, national and regional levels to the global level. This has resulted in the development of different forms of SDI at and between these levels and giving more attention to the SDI hierarchy which assist in decision-making. Since SDI development, maintenance and operation is a huge investment for the involved institutions, there is a need for indicators to judge their success and cost/benefit relations. Stakeholders are interested in monitoring both, an SDI’s status of development as well as its impact on the geoinformation market. Although, nearly all of the SDI initiatives use the same or similar basic technology and standards, they are hard to compare because of their different legal and organizational backgrounds. Best practice solutions do not seem to exist because the organizational framework plays an important role for an SDI’s success and cannot